Wednesday, January 31, 2007

I shall in the next week or so read Nick Cohen's book What's Left? How Liberals Lost Their Way. But, for now, the gist of it is that the British left was utterly outflanked by the fall of communism and the success of the market and, as a result, fell back on reflex anti-Americanism and a sinister sympathy for fascist Islamism. Socialism is dead. For the most part, this seems to have produced sad nods of agreement from others on the left, but today John Harris bites back. For Harris, Cohen's left is a straw man, the real movement is 'more Methodist than Marxist, and replete with its own sacred tenets - equality through redistribution, internationalism, a gentle faith in Fabianite gradualism.' This left's antipathy to the invasion of Iraq was based on memories of colonialism rather than anti-Americanism or fascist sympathies. This is a theological dispute, and none the worse for that. Socialism is the mutually agreed god and America and the free market constitute the faith-corroding onrush of science. Cohen once believed in the immanence of his deity, but now finds He has been exiled from the material world by the sheer success of unbelief. Harris embraces a 'god of the gaps' argument - God lives on in the spaces still inaccessible to science, in the interstices of the American ascendancy and the market. Theology still exposes the structures of human thought, it should be taught to children from the age of five at the latest.

9 comments:

But hasn't Labour ie the Left been the party in power in Britain during its recent crusading in the Islamic world together with this America that it supposedly hates so much? Very confusing. I hope Cohen isn't suggesting Blair and his party aren't of the Left at all; that they are merely engaging in opportunistic deceit. That this is all some kind of chimera of illusion. Though maybe the Left here is simply some people Cohen met down the pub.

Being 'left' is more a general disposition of mind, a sensitivity, a quality of character, that a great many people possess. In fact, I'd say most people. But it has become buried beneath the layers of capitalist/consumerist propaganda that has engulfed us all in the West. It surfaces every now and then when what is wrong about the world cannot be ignored, when the facade of well-being is not able to shield us from the iniquities of our social and political structures. I'm sorry. It always sounds so lame. But I believe this to be true.

Left and right - since the political markers are now completely blurred/lost/swapped is now completely down to attitude of mind.

You know you are of the 'left' if you: are a trbalist who is always on the lookout for traitors; believe your political opponents are motivated by malice, evil or some other misanthropy; believe intentions are more important than outcomes.

You are of the 'right' if you: are an individualist who is always seeking converts; believe your political opponents are just to stupid or wilfully ignorant to understand; believe outcomes count for more than intentions.

A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.